Forever Young
by SixSeasons
Summary: Being forever young isn't quite what Lina imagined it would be.


**Author's Note:** The song is Forever Young by Alphaville.

* * *

_Let's dance in style,  
Let's dance for a while,  
Heaven can wait,  
We're only watching the stars. _

Lina grinned wildly as she danced to the music. Clubs were one of her favorite places to go. Cheerfully, she let her partner spin her again. She wasn't sure of his name, but he had bought her a drink. This was the life. Parties, money, big expensive hotels, boys, and all the food and drinks she could ever imagine! The life of a Bandit Killer rocked!

_Hoping for the best,  
But expecting the worst,  
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not? _

Of course, if you're going to be the most powerful sorceress in the world, there's going to be a few jobs you'll have to take that aren't very fun. Lina hadn't realized that when she started all this. But ever since she had joined up with these guys, she'd had to get a lot more serious. Maybe it was just old age setting in. She laughed. Lina Inverse, worrying about her age! Seriously though, it wasn't like she was going to die fighting Shabranigdo! She would go fireball him to into oblivion, and then come back and have a feast. Maybe go to another club. She hadn't been to one since before meeting Naga.

_Let us die young,  
Or let us live forever,  
We don't have the power,  
But we never say never. _

She would not die. She had too many responsibilities! Responsibilities were never something she had before... but now... She had friends to protect, real friends, and the whole world was counting on her! Lina closed her eyes and began to chant the Giga Slave...

_Sitting in a sand pit,  
Life is a short trip,  
The music's for the sad men. _

Lina stood silently for a long time. Did she really want to do this? Did she really want to risk dying again? Life was so short as it was... why end it even earlier then she had to? Lina's fingers curled in a fist. What was the point of just standing here, though? Wasting her life even more? No! She _would_ do it!

_Can you imagine when this race is won?  
Turn our golden faces into the sun,  
Praising our leaders,  
We're getting in tune,  
The music's played by the mad men. _

The battles were all over. Nothing left to do but the enjoy the rest of her days in peace. Minus the occasional bandit-slaying, of course. She fell back on her bed, finally getting a chance to relax after the big battle... Praise L-sama, the madness was over.

_Forever young,  
I wanna be forever young, _

The whole reason she had learned magic was because of a myth she had once been told that the higher level of magic you had, the slower you'd age.

_Do you really wanna live forever?  
Forever and ever. _

No one had told her that if you learned that much magic all at once, you would remain the age you had learned it at for quite a long time. Lina stared into the mirror, glowering angrily at her height and very small chest. This sucked.

_Forever young,  
I wanna be forever young, _

Of course, the nice part was that she'd be around for ages! She could learn all the spells in the world in that time!

_Do you really wanna live forever?  
Forever young... _

...But if you learned all the spells in the world, it would take decades for your body to show even one year of age... how nice it was that people told her this kind of thing _after_ she had learned all the spells...

_Some are like water,  
Some are like the heat,  
Some are the melody,  
Some are the beat, _

Her friends, so different, so diverse. Amelia, so peppy. Gourry, so kind. Zelgadis, so smart. Sylpheel, so loving. Naga, so... annoying...

_Sooner or later they all will be gone,  
Why don't they stay young? _

They didn't stay young forever. All of them grew so old... Gourry had died, then Naga, then Amelia... Sylpheel finally went... and even Zelgadis had died of old age last year. And she looked twenty-three.

_It's so hard to get old,  
Without a cause,  
I don't want to perish,  
Like a fading horse, _

Lina sat at a table, alone. She never had stopped fighting Dark Lords like she had planned to. There wasn't any pointin going on if she didn't have a reason for living. How many Mazoku takeovers had she foiled? She'd lost count sometime last century...

_Youth's like diamonds,  
In the sun.  
And diamonds are forever! _

She was no longer called the Dra-mata. She was now the savoir of mankind! And saviors... were supposed to be immortal. And gods, she was.

_So many adventures couldn't happen today,  
Some many songs we forgot to play,  
So many dreams swinging out of the blue,  
We'll let them come true! _

She smiled softly as she set out with her partners. She'd had at least seventy different partners over the years. They went for incredible adventures! She brought them glory and fame! Then they would grow old and go home and have a family. And then they would die, having accomplished all their dreams. Lina had already accomplished all of hers... why was she only twenty-five?

_Forever Young,  
I wanna be forever young,  
Do you really wanna live forever,  
Forever and ever? _

Beautiful, young Lina Inverse stood at the edge of the world. Eras had come and gone like breezes, dynasties had fallen, plagues had massacred and then been forgotten. The ages had changed like seasons, being once reveled in, and then discarded like dirty laundry. The year of her birth had been scientifically deemed non-existent. Monuments she herself had helped to build were now among the Seven Wonders of the World.

_Forever young,  
I wanna be forever young,  
Do you really wanna live forever?  
Forever young. _

Lina sighed and walked back towards civilization. Only a few more years until the end of the millenium. Maybe that would be the year of the apocalypse. Maybe then she would die. Knowing her luck though, she would be the only one in the world to live through it. Dragging her feet, Lina walked past the door of a club. Somehow, parties and drinks didn't seem to fit her moods anymore.

_Forever Young... _


End file.
